Synology’s new hard disk compatibility policy has caused quite a buzz in the NAS community. Recent announcements for their 2025 series NAS devices, particularly the Plus models, have sparked widespread debate. Tech-Critter.com’s Editor, John Diew, sat down with Jason Sin, Synology’s Sales Account Manager for Malaysia & Brunei, at COMPUTEX 2025 to get direct answers.
The primary concern among users is the perception of vendor lock-in, fearing restricted choices and higher costs for drives. Sin addressed these anxieties, explaining Synology’s rationale behind the shift.
Why the Stricter Policy?
John Diew: Jason, thanks for your time. The news on Synology’s 2025 series drive compatibility has stirred a lot of discussion. Why this new implementation?
Jason Sin: We understand the community’s concerns. This enhanced certification program for the 2025 series, especially Plus models, is driven by our commitment to delivering the best user experience. Our focus is always on reliability, performance, and data integrity.
John Diew: Granted the objective is noble, many users feel this limits flexibility and pushes them towards more expensive Synology-branded drives. What’s your response to this “vendor lock-in” sentiment?
Jason Sin: We hear those concerns. Our motivation isn’t to restrict choice. As our NAS devices become more sophisticated with features, “we want to provide the best user experience to our customers.” This means ensuring every component works seamlessly and reliably. A drive isn’t just plugged in; it must perform consistently within our ecosystem. Based on our experience at providing support to our existing customers, the majority of the support tickets would originate from a drive failure. Since it involves third party, this ultimately translate to a worst user experience when it comes to support.
John Diew: You mean Synology would like to provide enterprise-like user experience, a one-stop warranty and service to end user?
Jason Sin: Yes, ideally that would shorten and simplify the customer support.
John Diew: Isn’t that unnecessary for NAS users since they purchase the NAS box and HDDs separately? Surely they understand the different warranty policies just like how a custom PC is consists of components from multiple brands.
Jason Sin: That is true for the enthusiast users. However, based on our customer support statistics apparently there are still a lot of users would direct all the support enquiries to Synology. These users would often submit a support ticket to Synology instead.
John Diew: Wouldn’t this “hard disk certification & compatibility” cause more public relations damage to Synology than actually helping?
Jason Sin: We understand the community concerns, just that we need to emphasize Synology is not limiting the use of third-party hard disk drives. The difference here is certification and we believe the long term outcome would benefit the end users.
The Rigor of Certification
Jason Sin: When we certify a drive, it undergoes rigorous, long-term testing that simulates real-world NAS usage. This includes testing for vibrations, thermal performance under sustained load, consistent firmware behavior, and error recovery rates when paired with our DSM operating system and hardware.
John Diew: So, it’s about reliability and performance that Synology can control?
Jason Sin: Exactly. In critical environments, unexpected drive failures or performance degradation from incompatible firmware can have severe consequences for data. By having a more controlled environment through certification, we offer a predictable, stable, and performant solution. This reduces issues for customers and streamlines our support, leading to a more consistent user experience. We’re actively expanding our certified drive options and are committed to clear communication on compatible models.
John Diew: Understand Synology’s standpoint of providing the most reliable user experience through this certification program. Wouldn’t it be easier for Synology to introduce the certification program without locking the features? Besides, why is the compatibility list is still limited to Synology branded drives?
Jason Sin: As the program was recently revamped, we are actively collecting feedbacks and currently opening our certification program to other hard disk vendors. Just like what we have emphasized, Synology has no plans to restrict the use of third-party drives as long as they are certified.
John Diew: Why don’t Synology kept the status quo and allow customers to decide their favourite drives? At most what Synology could do is put a disclaimer as what seen on the compatibility page – “Synology will not provide technical support if your device is not on the Synology Products Compatibility List.”
Jason Sin: Your feedback is well taken and Synology will do better with feedbacks from the community and media.
Jason Sin emphasized that Synology’s stricter hard disk compatibility program is a strategic move aimed at ensuring superior long-term reliability and an optimized user experience. He also points out that Synology has no plans to ban the use of third-party branded hard disks. While concerns about cost and flexibility persist, Synology maintains that greater data integrity and system stability ultimately benefit the end-user. As the 2025 series rolls out, the ongoing dialogue between Synology and its community will be key to understanding the impact of this policy shift.
